Based on the overall theme of the more talked about ads from the Super Bowl, this year brands wanted us to feel good about ourselves and to help make others feel good, too.

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But then some dudes apparently sat on their junk crooked because they got all bent out of shape saying #LikeAGirl is sexist and they expected Always to create a #LikeABoy ad so they didn’t have to feel all butthurt. #LikeABoy was trending on Twitter literally within minutes of the Always commercial and there were people calling themselves “Meninists” as opposed to being Feminist–clearly we need to create a movement to empower men–poor, disenfranchised, victimized, demoralized men who’ve been subjugated by women since the beginning of time.

Oh, wait. No.

We need #LikeABoy because some guys had their feelings hurt. Because they felt like they were being discriminated against by not having their own hashtag in a commercial–even though there were several aired just before and after the #LikeAGirl ad that singled out and positively highlighted the male experience: Nissan’s #WithDad, GoDaddy’s Working, Dove’s Real Strength, Toyota’s My Bold Dad … but no. They were sad and wanted a hashtag too.

To the douchebags who think that empowering girls somehow disenfranchises boys, I have this to say:

YOU are the reason we need campaigns to tell girls they are strong, smart, and powerful. YOU are the reason we need to change the dialogue about what it means to do things #LikeAGirl. YOU are the reason women have to fight to be treated as men’s equals. If you are somehow threatened by telling girls they can be and do anything they want, then YOU have a problem–and it’s a big one. Because with the kind of backward, archaic thinking that says girls shouldn’t be empowered, you’re going to be lapped by strong, smart, motivated girls who are proud to run, fight, throw, think, grow, and live #LikeAGirl.

To Always, I say “THANK YOU!!” for helping spotlight the strength and power of being a girl and for helping us look at the words we use and the messages tied to them. I am and will always be proud to walk, talk, work, and lay out a verbal smackdown #LikeAGirl.

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plus let’s not forget that it is, in the end, a tv commercial — for feminine hygiene products. But yes, let’s include them in the hashtag next time.Angela Todd recently posted…Tools of the trade: eating in style

These are the same asshats who probably tell other people who object to things, “Get over it. The world isn’t fair.” And how stupid can they be not to understand the point of the add beyond a hashtag? Thanks for writing this!

Oh, that’s always a gem of a response: get over it. As if there’s nothing we could possibly do to make anything better in our world for anyone. Yes, it wasn’t fair that women didn’t get to vote. I’m glad we didn’t just decide to “get over it” and instead did something about it.

I’d like to throw in my two cents here, being a man who believes in gender equality, but is often frustrated by the methods that people use to get there and some general hypocrisy. Which is often shared by males who overreact to things like this.

I will pretense this by saying, clearly there are plenty of men (and women) out there who don’t want to see gender equality. But that is not every single one of those people who are defending #LikeABoy. Also understand that I understand there are exceptions to everything, so take my words with a bit of generalization.

In the ad in specific: It’s nothing but stereotype. The adults (men and women) and young males in that ad asked to do something “like a girl” are over-dramatizing a stereotype that, like all stereotypes, are based somewhere in observational truths. Even in the ad itself, when the young girls are asked to punch like a girl, do it in a way that, as a guy, seems ridiculous (except the girl in the martial arts outfit, but I’ll get to that in a minute). If you asked a boy of the same age to throw a punch, he might seem the same way, even to me. The issue comes with growing up. That young, a boy might not have been in many fights, and a girl probably even less so. But as they both grow up, girls tend to argue and boys tend to fight. We get used to throwing punches and we know what it looks like when you’re doing it right. Girls, typically, get into physical fights as a last resort and their inexperience shows. It’s not that girls aren’t capable. Good job to the girl who was in martial arts class early, but she is a rarity in our culture. Want people to stop acting like girls can’t throw a punch? Teach them how to throw a punch. Teach enough girls, and you break the stereotype. If the ad were instead to say “clean up around the house #LikeABoy” girls would be sitting there doing nothing or “act sick #LikeABoy” they’d be over-dramatizing how weak men act when they don’t feel well. It’s a stereotype. And, while the phrase “like a boy” or “like a man” isn’t as commonly used as an insult, in that instance, we would be just as offended by the implications. The latter example of acting sick is one I see used by girls all the time (in fact, in my entire life, I don’t think I’ve -ever- seen a girl act like a guy can be sick without over-dramatizing it), and the stereotype pisses me off in a way that makes your plight completely understandable. I haven’t had a girl, or parents, or anybody really in my life for a long time, I am responsible and have to go to a physically demanding job early in the morning 6 days a week. If I’m sick, I’m there, working my ass off. And that is where your equality breaks down.

A general issue I have is in the way female empowerment is handled. The majority of the time, in an effort to be -just as- good as boys, which would be equal, girls compete to put men in their place, to do better than them, to focus on the things that men can’t do to show the things that girls can do. That isn’t often handled in a manner that seems like they’re fighting for equality.

I’m with you girls, I was raised around girls, you’re clearly more capable than the world gives you credit for. Keep fighting. But understand that equality is something that will never happen, not through any lack of effort on either side of the field, but because men and women are different. You are capable of just as much as we are (some biological differences aside). But you are different. Men and women don’t often have the same bonding experiences with the other gender, with their parents. It begets a culture that cannot truly be equal. Fight for your rights, fight to not be treated like lesser than men, I’m all for it.

I had to run back to work, I never really addressed why I commented on this page originally. It’s a good example of what’s wrong with the process of gender equality. And this is where I might look like an “asshat.” You sound just like the men the feminist movement is fighting against. You feel like women deserve a movement more than men, so men shouldn’t have one at all? Sounds like the same thought process that men use to pay women less at their jobs. You’re fighting for equality from a history of a one-sided world, but if you act like this, the future is just going to be the same way with a reverse in genders. It’s not equality. Ever met a man who didn’t think feminists should exist? I’m sure you have, I have. Aren’t you saying the same thing about meninists? Your hypocrisy is the bane of equality. If you empower yourself by dis-empowering men, aren’t you doing the same thing that men have been doing to women since, as you said, the beginning of time? People like you are the reason we feel the need to create a movement, so that your history does not become our history.

I’ll cut this short, because I feel a bit of anger in my tone and that’s not really what I want to present here. But just some more hypocrisy to note:

“#GuysArentCalledBitchesForBeingStrongAndSpeakingTheirMind”
No, but you did call us asshats and douchebags. It’s not the same word, but it’s pretty much the same premise, isn’t it? You may not agree with it, but we have a right to our opinions too.

“#BeingToldThatYouDoSomething”LikeABoy”IsntAnInsult”
Again, slight change of words, but I have been insulted plenty of times by a girl saying “ugh! Just like a man!” You may not have ever said this to someone, and if you haven’t I thank you, but don’t act like women don’t insult men for simply being men. It’s as untrue as if I said “LikeAGirl” wasn’t an insult.

“Like a girl” has long been a negative statement used against both girls and boys. The point is that girls are not inherently unable to be strong physically. In support of the boys, not all are meant to be jocks.

Whether we are parenting girls or boys, or both, we must be open to our child’s unique skills, interests and talents, which may differ from how we were raised, our interests and skills, and even what society deems as “normal.” When we allow each child to follow their passions we are doing our job as parents.

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